Putting Food By - Janet Greene [138]
Peach Jam
About eight ½-pint jars
4 pounds peach pulp
2 pounds sugar
1 cup peach juice
Remove peach skins, then chop fruit or pulse in batches in a food processor. Weigh, add the peach juice, bring slowly to a boil, add sugar, and finish according to method above.
For spiced jam: to this recipe add a spice bag containing 3 inches of cinnamon stick, broken, 2 teaspoons whole cloves, 1 teaspoon whole allspice, and 1 teaspoon of minced fresh gingerroot. Remove the spice bag before filling jars.
Plum Jam
About four ½-pint jars
2 pounds plum pulp
1½ pounds sugar
Wash and halve plums, and place in a covered vessel with just enough water to keep the fruit from burning. Cook, stirring, until the seeds slip easily, then press through a colander or mash. Weigh ingredients and continue according to method above.
Pear Jam
About four ½-pint jars
2 pounds pear pulp
1½ pounds sugar
Wash the pears, slice without peeling, place in a covered vessel with just enough water to keep from burning and cook slowly until soft. Press through a sieve or colander or put through a food mill fitted with a coarse disc to remove seeds and skin. Weigh ingredients and continue according to method above.
II. With Added Pectin
Grape Jelly
Eight to nine ½-pint jars
4 cups grape juice (3½ to 4 pounds grapes)
7 cups sugar
3-ounce pouch liquid pectin
Sort, wash, and stem ripe Concord (or wild) grapes; crush, add ½ cup of water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Turn into a damp jelly bag and drain well; do not squeeze. Hold the juice overnight in a cool place, then strain through 2 thicknesses of damp cheese-cloth to remove the tartrate crystals that form in grape products. Measure 4 cups of juice into a large kettle, add the sugar, and mix well; bring quickly to a full boil that cannot be stirred down. Add the pouch of pectin, bring again to a full rolling boil, and boil hard for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, quickly skim off the foam, and pour the jelly into hot ½-pint jars, leaving ½ inch of headroom. Cap with two-piece screwband lids. Process 5 minutes in a B–W Bath; cool upright and naturally.
Helen Ruth’s Sand Plum Jelly
With pectin, nine ½-pint jars
The cherry-size sand plum of the American Southwest is kin to the beach plum, that favorite for preserves from the sandy coasts of the Northeast up into the Canadian Maritimes. The sand plum is ripe in early June; the season for beach plums starts around the middle of August; the sand plum is a lovely pink when ripe, the beach plum is purple for conserve later in the month but is picked red for jelly. Both varieties gel better if at least one-fourth the amount of fruit is not quite ripe, thus having more natural pectin.
4 pounds sand plums, 3 pounds ripe and 1 pound underripe
1 cup water
1 package regular powdered pectin (1¾ ounces)
7 cups sugar
Wash and pick over the plums; do not pit or peel. Crush them in the bottom of a large enameled or stainless steel kettle with the 1 cup water, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 minutes. Crush again with a vegetable masher as the fruit softens. Strain through a jelly bag: add a little water to bring the measure up to 5 cups of juice. Return juice to the kettle, reserving 1 cup in which to mix the pectin; combine pectin mixture with juice and bring to a full boil, stirring constantly. Add the sugar, continue stirring, and boil hard for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, skim, and immediately pour into hot ½-pint canning jars, leaving ¼ inch of headroom. Cap with two-piece screwband lids. Give a 5-minute B–W Bath.
Freezer (Uncooked) Berry Jellies with Powdered Pectin